Photo-a-Day: Week 4

365:22 Babycino joy

365:23 Big Brother and the beach

365:24 The Great Garden Bird Watch

365:25 Fungal Sector

365:26 Sunset over the marsh

365:27 Clouds and trees

365:28 Blue Sky

Photo-a-Day: Week 3

365:15 Freshly Baked Bread

365:16 Friends

365:17 Aspalls

Still can't get over the fact that I live somewhere where this is on tap. Nectar.

365:18 Ice Crystals

365:19 Planning a Vegetable and Fruit garden

365:20 Frost on Gum 

365:21 Crossed branches

This is my quince tree that has clearly been left for many years to its own devices.  I'm going to have to tackle the pruning of this beast at some point, but where to start?

Photo-a-Day: Week 2

365:8 Marshmallow Fondant

An attempt to make something more palatable that the shop-bought roll-out icing

365: 9 Sunrise

365:10 That. Cake.

365:11 Winter Fruits

365:12 Cloud Bank

 365:13 Blue sky

 365: 14 Big Kent Sky

Photo-a-Day: Week 1

365:1 Puppets at Norwich Puppet Theatre. 

No-one will ever convince me that these things are not sinister.

 365:2 An asthma medication formulated for smoking in a pipe. 

Bridewell Museum, Norwich

 365:3 Beautiful fungi. Mousehold Heath, Norwich

 365:4 Bunnies watching TV. 

One of those days where all you want to do is snuggle down and watch a movie. These two girls like to join us if it's a good watch. (If not they go and sit by the conservatory door hopefully.

 365:5 Frost

365:6 Reflection

365:7 Composting Prunings

An unexpected bonus of having a couple of rabbits. This year they've been overloaded a little by the vast quantity of wood they've been expected to chew through as I struggle to sort out the overgrown garden. This forsythia has been a big hit.

Frosty Mornings

I'm not really a Winter person. I don't like the dark mornings and evenings and I hate being cold. You know you see those adverts for ice hotels in Norway and trips to Lapland? Absolutely not interested at all. When you've got kids the Winter holds a new level of pain. Coats and hats and gloves and scarves and boots and waterproof trousers make getting out of the house even more of a trial. And then when you go anywhere like a museum or a restaurant you have so much STUFF to find a place for. When I had my lovely huge double mountain buggy it was amazing for this sort of thing. You could fill it up with all the winter guff and just dump it somewhere. These days I have to carry it all. 

We've been catching up with the 2014 series of Fargo, which has made me fall in love with Martin Freeman all over again, but I cannot imagine why anyone lives in such an environment as Minnesota. How fab is Freeman though? If you haven't seen the Saturday Night Live Office/Hobbit sketch it's a wonderful reminder of how great he is. He seems to be typecast as a bit of a bumbling loser, but when you look back at this you can see how he is so subtly different.

Even I can see that there are some good bits in winter. I love a frosty morning, that dry cold with crisp air and bright skies (while they last). Curling up under a blanket to watch a movie. And ice crystals? Yes please! The Bug and Bean have recently discovered the joy of collecting ice from around the garden on a cold day. I remember doing this as a child, especially at school where perfect ice slippers could be gathered from the concrete bike stands in the bike sheds.

New beginnings...

I've decided to take up a 365 challenge this year in lieu of New Year's Resolutions.  Of course I can't help but make some resolutions, and I'm not against them; I make resolutions at the start of every month. Every single month promising myself to get more organised and get on top of life. Perhaps it's impossible to get on top of life? As a great (great) man once said:

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

It's been a very busy 18 months since my last blog, moving across the country, moving again, making friends, settling the progeny into new educational establishments. At the same time I wish I'd kept it up because life has moved fast and I've missed it. So many things I've done and seen and thought and achieved and I haven't taken note. So yes, a new beginning and a new blog.

My 365 challenge will be a photo-a-day. I won't be blogging every day so it will be a few day's roundup amongst the other things I do write about! I've chosen this because I love taking photographs and wish I was better at it. However I'm not about to carry a camera 24/7 so lots will probably be on my phone. Hopefully this will be a nice visual diary for me to look at.

Day 1

I had the pleasure this week of going to the Bridewell Museum in Norwich with several other adults so that instead of running at top speed to the shoe room (as is Little My's wont, much to my frustration), I was able to peruse some of the exhibits. I must have been to this museum 20 times and never been allowed to look at the old pharmacy before. What a joy to be able to slowly browse!

I could have stayed all day reading the labels on all the wonderful pharmaceuticals.

2015 will see me attempting to re-enter the world of paid work. I'm wondering if it would be at all possible to become a 1920s pharmacist?

The Bug particularly enjoyed dressing up as a 1950s lady.

Day 2

Mousehold Heath is a marvelous place that we have yet to fully explore. I'd love it if we could go for a good long walk every weekend this year. We've so many great places right on our doorstep we'll have to make a proper effort to see them all!